1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a mobile terminal, and in particular, to a method of sending and receiving information using a mobile terminal.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A mobile telecommunication system generally comprises mobile terminals, a base transceiver station (BTS), a base station controller (BSC), and mobile switching centers (MSC). The BTS converts the signal format between the mobile terminals and the BTS for wire and wireless link. The BSC connects each component of the BTS to a cell operator, manages the BTS operation, manages service status of hardwares and softwares in the BTS, allocates resources related to call traffic, collects information for the BTS operation, and monitors sub-devices related to monitoring and anchoring of the BTS. The MSC is the connection point for the BSC management and for user traffic between a mobile telecommunication network and a wire telephone network or between two BTSs of the same mobile telecommunication system.
Recently, mobile telephones can be used to receive AM or FM radio broadcastings or to store and playback MP3 music downloaded in audio file formats from the internet. In addition, mobile telephones can be used for phone number storage, schedule management, and personal information management. Moreover, the latest models allow more items to be input and stored to allow management of more information.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of a mobile terminal in the related art. Referring to FIG. 1, a typical mobile terminal includes a Radio Frequency/Intermediate Frequency (RF/IF) processing unit 100 for receiving and converting the frequency of RF signals to downlink signals; a modulator/demodulator (M/DM) 101 for demodulating the converted RF signals from the RF/IF processing unit 100 or for modulating input digital voice signals; a data compression unit 102 for compressing the input digital voice signals; a Coder/Decoder (CODEC) 105 for converting the digital signals received by the RF/IF processing unit 100 into voice signals or for converting voice signals input through a microphone 111 into digital signals; and a DTMF generator 104 for generating Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF) produced when a key button is entered.
The mobile terminal of FIG. 1 further includes a main processor 103 for executing call processing protocol to control the overall system of the mobile terminal and to connect a call; an audio amplifier 106 for amplifying analogue signals input from the CODEC 105 or microphone 111; a speaker 110; a liquid cell display window 107 for outputting the states of the mobile terminal; a memory 108 for storing variables used in programs and in the main processor 103, and storing information such as phone numbers; and a key pad 109 for receiving user inputs.
The operations of the mobile terminal in sending or receiving voice data is as follows. When sending voice data, a user inputs a voice signal after manipulating the mobile terminal to connect a call with another user terminal. The microphone 111 converts the input voice signal into an electrical signal and transmits the electrical signal to the CODEC 105. The CODEC 105 samples and converts the analog voice signal transmitted electrically from the microphone 111 to a Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) signal and transmits the PCM signal to the data compression unit 102. The data compression unit 102 then compresses the PCM signal transmitted from the CODEC 105.
Thereafter, the main processor 103 executes spreading of the compressed PCM signal by multiplication with a Pseudo Noise (PN) code, and the M/DM 101 modulates the spread PCM signal for radio transmission. The RF/IF processing unit 100 converts the modulated voice signal output by the M/DM 101 from an intermediate frequency to a radio frequency and transmits the converted signal through an antenna.
The receiving operation is a reverse of the sending operation and a detailed explanation will be omitted. Briefly, a radio signal is received through the antenna, converted to an intermediate frequency by the RF/IF processing unit 100, demodulated by the M/DM 101, despread by the main processor 103, expanded and converted into a voice signal to be output through the speaker 110.
In sending/receiving personal information using a mobile terminal described as above, there have been problems. First, if a mobile terminal user wishes to send personal information to another mobile terminal during a call to the another mobile terminal, the mobile terminal user must send the personal information by voice through a speech channel. Similarly, when receiving personal information during a call, a mobile terminal user must make note of the personal information received by voice, and then manually input and store the information in the mobile terminal after terminating the call. Also, if a business card is exchanged, a mobile terminal user who receives the personal information on the business card must manually input and store the personal information in the mobile terminal, causing inconvenience.
Second, a message including personal information can be sent/received by a short message service. However, the receiving mobile terminal recognizes such personal message as merely a short message and therefore, a user of the receiving mobile terminal must manually confirm and store the received personal information in the phone number list of the mobile terminal. For example, if the SMS includes a name “John” and phone number “019-123-4567,” the user must confirm receipt and manually input each character J,o,h,n and numbers 0,1,9,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 into the phone number list of the mobile terminal. When such personal information is sent to a numberous number of mobile terminals, each user of the receiving mobile terminal must store the received personal information, causing great inconvenience.